Red Horse Collection
by Kayotics
Summary: A collection of unrelated one-shots or short chaptered stories focusing on exploring the relationship between Ranma and Akane. - It wasn't like Akane WANTED to be – who was she kidding of course she wanted to be intimate with Ranma. Even if she wasn't in love with the guy, she still found him attractive. But she could still control herself, except for one little itsy-bitsy thing.
1. Cheers

Hello everyone, been a long time since I've posted anything on this site.

This story will be a collection of one-shots or short stories that take place in the Ranma 1/2 universe. Most of these stories will focus on the relationship between Ranma and Akane. Some of them may be long, some may be only a few paragraphs. And many of these stories will be like sketches, a way for me to practice my writing and storytelling abilities. It's been a long time since I've actually written anything, so I decided to get back into shape.

The stories will vary in rating from K to M, and if there's anything super explicit it will most likely be hosted on a separate site with a link available on my profile. Updates will be sporadic and occur when I feel like it.

This chapter specifically is a Christmas/New Year's/Birthday present for my friend, so I hope she likes it.

Feel free to offer some constructive critique, but keep in mind that since these are ultimately me practicing writing, I may completely ignore them. So to keep this from getting any longer, let's get on with the show!

**NOTE about this chapter:** This chapter contains alcohol and underage drinking, so if any of those things make you uncomfortable, feel free to skip ahead.

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**Red Horse Collection**

**1. Cheers**

Ranma Saotome didn't get a lot of time alone. Usually, these rare moments of peace would be interrupted by someone wanting to fight him, marry him, or mess up his life in some other way. That's why, when he found that he was alone on New Year's Eve, he had no idea what to do.

Mr. Tendo and his father had gone out to drink in the New Year (quite literally), Kasumi was invited to a friend's house to watch the specials on TV, and Nabiki dragged Akane along to some party. Ranma was left to fend for himself.

On any other day, he would have welcomed the peace with open arms. Today, though, was supposed to be a holiday. He groaned and flopped back from his spot at the table, spreading his arms wide and staring at the ceiling. "What do people even do to celebrate New Years?" he asked the empty room. The room didn't respond.

_Pops and Mr. Tendo are drinking. Kasumi is with friends, maybe having a drink. Nabiki is at a party, probably drinking. I'm noticing a theme here._ Ranma scrunched up his brow in thought. The thought of drinking in general never really occurred to Ranma. He had had alcohol before, like the time Kuno forced a bottle of wine down his throat during the school's performance of Romeo and Juliet, but other than that, he didn't have much experience with alcohol.

Ranma groaned and turned to face the TV. Maybe if he watched something for a bit, he'd forget about the notion entirely. He spent about four minutes staring at a black screen, not bothering to actually turn it on, before getting up from the table and going to the kitchen. Drinking sounded better than watching the same programs he saw last year.

After spending an astronomical amount of time trying to decide what to drink, he picked one of the bottles of rice wine in the fridge that Genma hadn't already polished off. Not really caring to be proper, Ranma grabbed any old cup from the shelf (it was a mug that Akane had painted when she was young, and she used every color she could find), opened the bottle, and poured what was left of the alcohol into the rainbow-colored mug. He stared down the half-full glass of booze, trying to decide the best way to tackle it. Not really knowing how he should drink it, he did what Ranma does best. He dove in head first and chugged.

That was the worst decision of his life.

Ranma blanched and slapped his hand across his mouth, trying his damnedest to not spit back out the burning liquid that was currently eating away at his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut and gulped the rest of it down, gasping for air as soon as the deed was done. Without skipping a beat, he shoved the childish mug under the faucet and filled it to the brim before washing down the vile taste in his throat.

"How can anyone _enjoy_ that?" he shouted to no one in particular. He glared at the mug in his hand as if it was the cause for his pain. Ranma, annoyed at himself and at the burning that still lingered in his throat, started to rifle through all the liquor that was in the house in hopes of finding something that actually tasted _good_.

Obviously, he didn't have the same taste in drinks as his father and Mr. Tendo, but surely there would be something that he liked. Eventually, in the back of the fridge he found a bottle of beer. It wasn't sake, and it wasn't a girly drink like wine, so he thought it was perfect. He noticed there was also a pretty good stock of beer cans and bottles in the back of the fridge.

Ranma opened the bottle and set it down on the counter. He was feeling less brave about this drink than he was about the last one. He had experience under his belt. The experience of a single half mug of sake. He had seen things, and they weren't pretty. Ranma steeled himself, grabbed the bottle by the neck, and took a long swig.

This was not the worst decision of his life, but it wasn't really a good one.

It tasted like piss. Ranma couldn't think of a better description than "tastes like piss" when it came to this drink. Not even "pee" or "urine", no, it had to be the taste of "piss." But still, it wasn't as bad as the sake, and making a stupid grimace every time you took a sip was much better than chemically removing the lining of your internal organs, in Ranma's opinion.

He took his drink to the table and actually turned on the TV to watch the New Year's specials, wanting for some noise, and nursed his slowly dwindling bottle of beer. The longer he sat, though, the warmer the beer got, and, as it got warmer, the beer started tasting worse and worse. Eventually, it got to the point where it was so bad, that he decided to chug the rest of it just to be done with it.

Ranma still really didn't see what was so great about alcohol. To him, it appeared to be a bad tasting drink that people suffered through for no reason at all. But for some reason, he wanted another one. Ranma rose to his feet and took two steps toward the kitchen before stumbling back to his spot on the floor.

Apparently, the alcohol was affecting him more than he thought. He smirked stupidly, amused by the puny drink's attempts to beat him, and marched determinedly toward the kitchen. He wasn't sure he liked the dizziness that came with drinking, but he was committed to not showing the world that he was feeling the booze's affect on his body. He didn't really notice when his shoulder ran into the doorframe, or that he opened the fridge with a little too much flair and motion. Instead he just grabbed another bottle of beer, and brought it back to the table.

Just as he sat down, he heard someone come in the door. "I'm home!" shouted a feminine voice, and just as Ranma twisted off the beer cap with a click, Akane walked into the room and stopped to look at him.

Ranma turned his head to look at her, his neck twisting in an odd way to accommodate for the angle. She stood silent for a few moments, her thin winter gloves in her hand and her jacket still on.

"...Ranma?" she questioned, tilting her head to look at him.

"Yeah?" He didn't move from his position.

"What are you doing?"

"Drinkin'."

"I can see that. I'm wondering _why._" Akane looked at him with a mixture of confusion and slight disappointment. Ranma didn't really like that, but he also didn't really want to put the effort in to actually _care_.

Ranma repositioned himself to a more normal position, moving so he was still sitting at the table, but angled so he was also looking at her. He took a long moment to look at the bottle of beer in his hand (which he would have started _drinking_ by now if _someone_ hadn't come in and interrupted), and slowly he turned to her and said, "Y'know, I'm not really sure why."

Akane was too stunned to say anything, so Ranma took over. He held out the beer in his hand and asked, "D'ya want some?"

His fiancé blinked and stared at the offered beverage. It was another few silent moments before Akane replied, "Let me put away my coat."

Ranma took that as a yes, so while Akane went to take care of her things, Ranma sauntered into the kitchen and grabbed another beer from the fridge. When she returned, there was one bottle waiting for her, and Ranma was taking a large swig from the other.

"Uh, so…" Akane started, sitting down in front of her bottle and placing her hands on the table. She looked at it apprehensively, like it was some sort of strange, unidentifiable creature.

"Here, lemmie get that for ya," Ranma offered as he set down his drink. He reached over the table and twisted the cap off of Akane's bottle, before leaning back and resuming the consumption of his own booze.

Akane tentatively gripped the beverage with both hands, and took a small sip. She winced at the taste, but otherwise set down her drink gently. "Ew, this stuff is gross. It tastes like…"

"Piss," Ranma finished for her, looking at her with a small smirk. She gave him a hesitant smile back, really confused by the whole situation more than anything. "So what are ya doing back so early? Did Nabiki ditch ya at the party, so you decided to come crawlin' home ta me?"

"No," bristled Akane, taking another small sip, "I left because I _wanted_ to."

She didn't continue so Ranma prodded, "And why's that?"

"Well, there were a lot of Nabiki's friends there, but not mine. They were also starting to drink so I decided to come home before it got too rowdy," Akane explained. "But, I guess… I couldn't really get away from that anyway."

Ranma blinked at her before adopting a scowl. "Hey now, it's not like I'm gonna start throwin' things or nothin'. It's not like anything's going on around here anyway," he said. He finished his drink and stood to get another before turning to Akane and saying, "You should finish that before it gets warm. It tastes even worse then."

Akane watched him stumble into the kitchen before focusing her attention on her own drink. She sighed and took a big swig of it, shuddering as she slammed down the bottle. Why she was playing along with this was beyond her, but she was intrigued. She was a bit disappointed in him for stealing drinks, but the cold glass in her hand reminded her that she was now partaking in the same thing. _Oh well,_ she thought, _Isn't this supposed to be something that teenagers do anyway? Almost like a right of passage or something._

Ranma came back with a can of beer, a half emptied bottle of wine, his mug from before, and a cup for Akane. He plopped down at the table ungracefully and set all of his supplies down before cracking open his can of beer.

"Ew, this stuff is somehow worse than the bottled beer," Ranma commented with a grimace. They drank in silence for a while, enjoying each other's company and the sounds of the TV. Every so often Ranma would remind her of how terrible her drink would taste in a bit, and she'd drink a little faster, while Ranma polished off the can in his fist.

"Oh, I'm out," muttered Akane.

"Me too." Ranma gave a sidelong glance to the wine sitting on the table.

Catching the hint, Akane reached for the bottle and poured out the clear yellow liquid into their glasses.

"Cheers," Ranma said in monotone, holding up his glass to the sky. Akane clinked hers against the mug in his hands and drank, taking a long sip of it before setting it down.

"Hey, this is pretty good!" she said, a smile coming to her face. It was light and fruity, with a little bit of tartness to it. Akane looked to her fiancé expectantly and found him staring at her with a soft blush on his face… Or maybe it was just flushed from the alcohol. "Ranma?"

"Oh, yeah. It's good," Ranma stuttered out, his gaze lingering a little too long before he turned his head quickly toward the TV, which turned out to be a mistake. He gripped the side of his head with his hand to try to get the room to stop spinning and laughed a little. "Hah, oh wow. I guess I'm starting to see why people get so loopy when they're drinking."

"Huh?"

"I'm really dizzy. I can just turn my head and the room spins," Ranma explained, turning back to her too quickly again and having to grip the table for support.

Akane looked at him blankly. "How much have you had?"

Ranma thought for a long moment, lazily bringing up his fingers to count. "Well, first there was the sake in the fridge. Wow, that was gross stuff. Then there was that first beer… I think I started my second one when you walked in. Then the can. And now this wine," Ranma said, flicking off his fingers until his entire hand was being used to count. With each finger, Akane looked a little more shocked, while Ranma just gave her a lazy smile.

"Ranma! Are you trying to get drunk?" she accused, bouncing up a bit from her seat. The small movement felt weird to her, almost like she had a little less control of her body than before.

"Hey, I didn't set out to do nothin'. But now that I'm part way there why not just keep drinkin'?" Ranma took another long gulp of the wine, not really caring that he was spilling some down the side of his face.

A silence fell over the room as Akane stared at her fiancé with a look of annoyance. "I can't believe you."

He glared at her before pointing an accusing finger at her and proclaiming, "If you're so smart, why don'tcha try to get ta where I am, instead of scolding me like you're my mom!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"I don't really care!"

"Why would I even want to get drunk?!"

"Because I'm lonely and it would be a lot more fun if you were drunk with me!"

Akane opened her mouth to retort but paused and stared at him. He looked embarrassed, but it didn't appear that he was going to take back what he said. Ranma held her gaze unflinchingly. She kept her glare up before shouting at him, "Fine!" She lifted the cup of wine to her mouth and downed it without really tasting it. She quickly reached for the bottle, poured herself another glass, and started chugging that one too, as if to show him "yeah, I can keep up with you, so what?"

Just as she finished that one and reached for the shrinking supplies for a third glass, she felt a hand press firmly against her arm. She looked up to see Ranma looking at her with a concerned expression. "You should prob'ly slow down, 'Kane." His face was so earnest that she relented and set down the almost empty bottle of wine.

"Well, now what?" she asked him, her anger fading into an uneasy calm.

"I dunno, we could just talk or somethin'," he suggested with a shrug of his shoulders, being careful not to move his head too much so he could avoid the dizziness that seemed to be almost constant now.

Surprised once again at his nonchalance, she hesitated before saying, "Well, alright. What about what you said earlier? About being lonely?" Akane's voice trailed off to be barely above a whisper, making it hard for Ranma to catch what she said, especially in his intoxicated state. He became flustered, looking around the room and not quite catching her eye before replying.

"Well, uh, yeah… I guess I was, 'cause no one was home and I, uh, didn't have anyone to spend the New Year with… so…" Ranma stopped talking, realizing that he wasn't saying much of anything, and looked down embarrassedly.

The room became awkward, as neither of them knew exactly what to say. A few moments passed, each of them sipping from a drink periodically, before Akane spoke. "Ranma?"

He looked up from his drink a little too quickly and had to grip onto the table to steady himself. Akane pressed on. "Are you glad that it was me who came home?"

Ranma snorted and replied, a little too loudly, "Duh! If it was anyone else who came home, it would be a lot worse!"

Akane bristled. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, if Nabiki came home, she'd probably just try to take advantage of the situation somehow, Pops and your dad would be tryin' ta get me drunk or somethin' for whatever reason, and Kasumi… Kasumi wouldn't do much but she'd probably give me _that look_ that she has, y'know the one? Where y'know ya did something awful and she makes you feel like the scum of the earth," Ranma clarified.

While his assessment was fairly accurate, Akane's temper wasn't appeased. "And what about me?"

Her glare was piercing, but Ranma was too far gone to really be affected by the look that she was giving him. He looked at her for a long moment before smirking. "Ha, Akane, you're gettin' the wrong idea," he said in a rare moment of insight.

"Then what's the right idea?" Akane asked, leaning forward on the table and clenching her fist tightly.

"I ain't glad you're here because everyone else would be terrible company. Well, okay, that's part of the reason, but you didn't come in here and start makin' trouble. You just came in and joined me," said Ranma, raising his glass toward her.

Akane let his words sink in for a few moments before reaching across the table and placing a palm on his forehead.

"Akane, what on earth are you doing?" deadpanned Ranma.

"You don't feel like you're sick…"

"I ain't sick, you dolt! I'm just drunk!"

Akane pulled back her hand and giggled, amused to see Ranma acting a bit like his normal self. "Sorry, you're just acting a lot nicer than usual," Akane laughed, covering her mouth with her hand as she chuckled.

"I'm always nice," grumbled Ranma, finding a stable position as he leaned over the table.

"And the Kunos aren't insane!" teased his fiancé. Ranma pouted as Akane laughed at him again. After a few moments he joined in and laughed with her. So they sat, laughing about nothing.

As soon as they calmed down, Ranma glanced over to the TV. The announcer was counting down the last few minutes until midnight. Ranma continued to watch until he felt something bump up next to him. He turned to see Akane standing there, a bottle of champagne in one hand and their makeshift drinking glasses in the other. Ranma raised an eyebrow at her.

"Kasumi got this for me a while ago. She told me that I should have this when I want to celebrate something," Akane explained, holding up the bottle. She started to peel off the foil wrapped around the top and continued, "I thought that I'd like to share this with you to celebrate bringing in the New Year."

Ranma smiled at her and asked, "Do you even know how to open that?"

"I've never done it before, but Kasumi told me how to do it," Akane explained, untwisting the thin metal that surrounded the cork and tossing it onto the table. She turned away from Ranma and anything breakable and took a firm grip of the wine bottle with her right hand and the cork with her left. Carefully, she started to twist the bottle.

After a minute of twisting, Ranma chimed in, "Are you sure you've got it?"

Akane chose to ignore him and muttered, "Just a little more…"

Then, with an ear-shattering pop, the champagne bottle opened, vapor slowly wafting out of the mouth of the glass. Proud of herself, Akane poured the bubbly liquid into Ranma's mug and into her own cup. She took a seat next to Ranma to watch the TV, sitting a little closer to him than necessary, but neither of them said anything. "Drink up! We've got to finish off this bottle tonight!" she told him, holding up her glass into the air.

"What?!"

"Cheers!"

Ranma sighed and clinked his mug against hers, a wry smile donning his features. Akane laughed again and took a sip from her glass, giving a pleased "mm!" at the taste.

It was sweet and bubbly, and went down smoothly. The two drank as the last minute before midnight ticked away.

"10!" The TV spokesperson shouted to the crowd gathered around him and to the audience at home.

Akane turned and grinned at Ranma.

"9!"

Ranma looked back at her and gave her a grin of his own before focusing his attention back to the TV in front of them.

"8!"

Akane scooted closer to Ranma, leaning up against him comfortably.

"7!"

Ranma stiffened at the contact but relaxed and put his arm around her.

"6!"

A sip of champagne to calm the nerves.

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Happy New Year!" shouted the TV, the people in it throwing hats and confetti into the air. Immediately, the camera started to pan over the couples kissing in the crowd.

"Happy New Year, Ranma," Akane whispered, reaching up and pressing her lips lightly against his cheek.

Even in his intoxicated state, he froze under her touch. "A-Akane?"

She giggled and went back to snuggling at his side. After a few moments, he finally relaxed, and said to her, "Happy New Year ta you too, Tomboy."

The two of them stayed up for a while after that, finishing off the bottle of champagne. It didn't take them long to polish it off, but moving from their positions in front of the TV turned out to be more of a hassle than they thought it would be. Eventually they managed to get up and stumbled toward the table to clean up all the trash that they left behind. They both thought that the cleaning took a lot longer than it should have, but seeing as neither of them could really walk in a straight line, it was understandable.

Soon, the table was cleared and any evidence of their delinquency was taken care of. They led themselves to the stairs and climbed them slowly, making sure to watch themselves so they didn't fall.

They stopped in front of Ranma's room, swaying slightly as they stood facing each other. It was a few awkward moments before Ranma broke the silence. "Hey, uh, thanks for hangin' out with me tonight. It was pretty fun."

Akane smiled at him, and said, "Anytime. I'd like to…" She hesitated. "I'd like to spend more time with you again. Maybe without the alcohol next time?"

Ranma laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Th-that sounds like fun. Do you mean, like, a date?"

"S-sure," she whispered, looking down at the floor and fidgeting before him.

"That sounds nice… Well, uh…. Night 'Kane," Ranma whispered, sliding into his room.

"Goodnight, Ranma," she replied, waving at him as she walked down the hall to her room.

The next morning both Ranma and Akane were woken up obnoxiously early by their parents, were forced to get ready to leave the house, and brought to the nearest shrine to welcome the new year. They stood huddled together out in the open, bags under their eyes and hating the world.

"I have the worst headache," Akane muttered, gripping her arms in an attempt to keep them warm.

"I think I'm still drunk," Ranma slurred, his eyes half lidded.

"Let's not do that for a while," Akane concluded, and Ranma nodded his head slowly in response.

Both of them vowed to go straight to bed as soon as they got home.


	2. Just a Whiff

Hey everyone! Thanks for the reviews! Just a quick response to AliceTheBookGirl, you asked if "damnedest" was a word, and I'd just like to let you know that it is. I suppose it would sound strange if you haven't heard it before, since it's not commonly used.

This one might seem a bit creepy (which is actually emphasized in this one shot), but it's honestly based on myself. In relationships, one of the things I like best is the way that the other person smells, so I thought I'd play on that. After writing this, I realized that I could continue with the other 4 senses, sight, hearing, taste, and touch, but I don't know if I'll actually do that. It's up in the air. This chapter is largely unedited right now, so I may go back and change or add some things. Anyway, enjoy!

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**Red Horse Collection**

**2. Just a Whiff**

There weren't many times that Akane and Ranma spent in close physical contact with each other. In fact, Akane could probably count them on one hand. Even when they had gotten close to kissing, there was seldom a time where they actually embraced while doing so. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. It wasn't like Akane _wanted_ to be – who was she kidding of course she wanted to be intimate with Ranma. Even if she _wasn't_ in love with the guy (and the only person she was fooling with that lie was herself and Ranma), she still found him attractive. But she could still control herself, except for one little itsy-bitsy thing.

His smell.

There was something about it, something so incredibly amazing about the way that he smelled that she just wanted to grab him and shove her face into his hair and not move for hours so she could just breathe in his scent. She knew it was ridiculous, and maybe a little bit weird, but the musky scent of his hair drove her up the wall.

She had first discovered her addiction right around the time Ryoga showed up. Ranma wasn't even a boy at the time, but he had lifted her up out of harm's way and they had held each other on top of a roof for a few moments before jumping out of each other's grasp. Those few moments were enough for Akane to get a good sample of what Ranma smelled like, even though it was slightly different when he was in his girl body, almost a little fresher, if she had to describe it.

The second time she got a whiff of his scent was during the ice skating competition. Ranma was a boy that time, and he had just saved her from slamming into the wall. She had buried her head into his chest and called him an idiot or something and in those few moments she caught it. She didn't focus on it but somewhere in the back of her mind she thought, _He smells nice._

Of course, at that time part of her still didn't want anything to do with him, so she tried to ignore it. The problem was that she _knew_ the smell now. She tuned into it. Every time they passed each other in the hall, she caught it faintly. The times where they got close enough to kiss, she was half tempted to just shove her nose into his body with enough force to give herself a nosebleed. And the times that she hugged him? Those moments were amazing.

As Akane found herself liking Ranma more and more, she also realized that she wanted to just smell him more and more. That scared her. What if he thought she was some sort of pervert? Or a deranged weirdo? She thought it was kind of weird herself, so if Ranma found out, he'd never even want to look at her again, right?

So, when Akane caught him asleep on her bed after he watched her do homework, part of her wanted to go over there and smell him. Part of her also wanted to hit him for falling asleep on her bed but she wasn't quite that cruel.

Slowly, she rose from her desk, hoping that her movement wouldn't wake him. Ranma could either be a very light sleeper or dead to the world, and Akane hoped that tonight, it was the latter.

So far, so good. She tiptoed across the room, praying that for once she wouldn't suffer from a bout of clumsiness at a time like this. She stopped beside the bed and swallowed hard. He looked… well he looked pretty stupid for someone asleep. His mouth was half open and he was starting to drool a little bit. Ranma's limbs were splayed out in every direction and he was on his stomach. Akane leaned over her fiancé's prone body and rested her hand on the bed to offer some support in the awkward position.

_Akane, what are you doing?_ she asked herself, cursing her actions. Could she really not control herself? Was she so desperate to catch his scent that she'd go so far as invading his personal space and acting like a creep?

Yes. Yes to all of those questions.

Akane lowered herself to put her nose right above his hair and breathed in.

Okay. This was worth it. He smelled great.

She hoped that he never started wearing cologne (the perfume for men, not the old woman) because nothing could smell as good to her as he did.

Akane lingered a little too long because after a few moments, Ranma jolted awake, sensing a presence near him. Unfortunately, he moved to sit up and hit the back of his head against Akane's face.

"OW!"

Their combined yells filled the room and Akane clutched her nose, touching her nostrils to see if she was bleeding. She pulled back her fingers to see a slick red liquid covering them.

"Shit, Akane, are you okay? What he hell were you doing?" Ranma asked, clutching the back of his head and handing her a tissue.

Akane, too embarrassed and concerned about her nosebleed, didn't answer.

"Sit down, let me get some ice," said Ranma before hurrying off downstairs.

Akane sat on her bed, pinching her nose to try to stop the bleeding. Okay, maybe it wasn't worth it. He had smelled great, but now all she could smell was her own blood. Ranma ran back into the room, carrying a small back of ice for her and pressing another bag of ice on the back of his head.

"Don't tilt your head back, stupid. The blood could run down your throat," Ranma cautioned, and Akane immediately adjusted herself to lean forward. He kneeled down in front of her and looked up. "Okay, let me see."

Akane moved aside the stained tissue and moved the hand pinching her nose enough so he could see. "Well, it doesn't look broken, but keep pinching that until it stops," instructed her fiancé. He grabbed for the extra bag of ice and handed it to her. "I don't know if this will help but it might take some of the pain away, so put it on when you can."

Ranma rose up so he wasn't on the floor anymore and took a spot on the bed next to her. He looked calm and cool, even while holding a bag of ice to the back of his head.

"So… Uh, what were you doing?" Ranma asked, seemingly less capable when he wasn't taking care of injuries.

Akane turned her head. She would have blushed if the blood in her face wasn't currently escaping through her nostrils. "Nothing." Her voice sounded weird and muffled with her nose being pinched.

Ranma scoffed. "You had your head right above mine and I was asleep. Ya always call me a pervert, but now I'm not so sure…"

"I wasn't doib anythib!" Akane shouted, turning her head to glare at him.

Ranma started laughing right in her face, and shouted back, "WOW, you sure sound stupid!"

"Shub up!"

That made Ranma laugh until he was literally rolling on the bed, clutching his stomach and trying to catch his breath.

Akane glared at the far wall. As soon as he calmed down, he sat up and she asked, "Finishb?"

Ranma chuckled again and wiped his eyes. "Ah… Yeah… Jeez, though, what were you doin'?"

She had hoped that he would have dropped it by now. "I was makinb sure you weren't deab," she lied, not making eye contact.

Her fiancé raised an eyebrow. She knew he could see straight through her lie, but she didn't care. There was no way she was going to admit that she liked the way he smelled. His ego was big enough as it is.

"'Kane, that was the lamest excuse I've ever heard."

She met his gaze, and they stared each other, Ranma looking at her with a deadpan expression and Akane trying to appear innocent while half of her face was covered in blood. After a few moments, Ranma glanced at her nose and then back at her face, before Ranma's face lit up in understanding.

"You were _smelling_ me, weren'tcha?" Ranma accused, getting in close and pointing a threatening finger at her.

"WHAT? No! Neber!" Akane exclaimed, kicking herself back into the wall and waving her hand in front of his face. "Why would I eber do dat?"

"You _like_ how I smell!" Ranma laughed, inching forward with a maniacal grin on his face.

"No! No no no no no nononononono!" Her protests were futile. He _knew._ He would tease her or hate her or lord it over her head. He would call her names and make fun of her and _no_!

"Well you know what?" Ranma said, obviously asking rhetorically. He scooted closer and she squeezed her eyes shut, an embarrassed blush forming on her cheeks.

She held her breath and waited for him to say that he thought she was a pervert, or a freak, or a creep, or anything. Akane clenched her eyes together tighter, trying to stop from seeing altogether. Then, she felt his face get near her ear. She could have _sworn_ she heard an almost imperceptible intake of breath from his nose, and he whispered, so shyly and quietly that she almost didn't catch it.

"I like how you smell too."

Akane's eyes snapped open, but he was already gone. The curtains fluttered and her window was open, and she knew that he couldn't be too far away. She smiled after him, releasing her nose from between her fingers and bringing down the tissue to her lap.

Maybe she could sneak a few more whiffs. Just maybe.


End file.
